Identity before identity politics / Linda Nicholson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nicholson, Linda J.

Series:

Cambridge cultural social studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Group identity--United States--History.

Group identity.

Women--United States--Identity--History.

Women.

African Americans--Race identity--History.

African Americans.

Women's rights--United States--History.

Women's rights.

Civil rights movements.

History.

African Americans--Race identity.

Identity (Philosophical concept).

United States.

Civil rights movements--United States--History.

Physical Description:

viii, 192 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Summary:

In the late 1960s identity politics emerged on the political landscape and challenged prevailing ideas about social justice. These politics brought forth a new attention to social identity, an attention that continues to divide people today. While previous studies have focused on the political movements of this period, they have neglected the conceptual prehistory of this political turn. Linda Nicholson's engaging book situates this critical moment in its historical framework, analyzing the concepts and traditions of racial and gender identity that can be traced back to late eighteenth-century Europe and America. She examines how changing ideas about social identity over the last several centuries both helped and hindered successive social movements, and explores the consequences of this historical legacy for the women's and black movements of the 1960s. This insightful study will be of particular interest to students and scholars of political history, identity politics, and US history.

Contents:

1 The politics of identity: race and sex before the twentieth century 9

Introduction to chapters 2 and 3 35

2 Freud and the rise of the psychological self 38

3 The culture concept and social identity 65

Introduction to chapters 4 and 5 92

4 Before Black Power: constructing an African American identity 94

5 Women's identity/women's politics 139

Epilogue: identity politics forty years later: assessing their value 176.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780521862134

0521862132

9780521680486

0521680484

OCLC:

228676587

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description